Profiles In Courage

Sunday afternoon, went out for brunch with my ladyfriend. Waiting for a table at the restaurant (which will remain nameless) we overheard a waitress crowing to a customer about how great it's gonna be when the smoking ban goes into effect.

My GF, a smoker and no wallflower, chimed in: "Well, what about those of us who smoke? Where are we gonna eat?"

"Try the Surgeon's General's house," snapped back the nice waitress.

GF went straight to the manager. The manager, to her credit, agreed it was way out of line. We left after that; we don't know what happened to the waitress. Maybe she got fired. One can hope. Let her go work at Hooter's or something.

It reminded me of something similiar that happened a couple of years ago when I was hosting a talk show in my home state. My father and I were visiting a local hardware store, and to make a long story short, the staff was super rude. So I went on the air and talked about it (and got a bunch of folks calling in to say, "Yeah, they're that way with everybody.").

Well, you'll never guess what happened: yep...the manager of the store called in to bitch; turns out they advertised on the station. They pulled their account (which amounted to about twenty thousand a year, a pretty small figure by radio advertising standards, trust me). I got canned. (Should have seen it coming; a friend in the biz warned me going in that "doing good radio at that place will get you fired.")

I lost my gig but I regret nothing. I stand by my statement. Rude service is inexcusable. And given the circumstances, I don't think that radio station will be up for the "Profiles In Courage" award any time soon. Not much I can do about that, except to say this: if anyone I knew was to consider working for, or advertising at said station, I would tell them my story and let them decide for themselves.

And hell, it's not like they can fire me or anything...